Kiss Me Kate

Clive Borrow - November 1982 - Priory Centre

It is the end of the final rehearsal of Taming of the Shrew on the stage of Ford’s Theatre in Baltimore, U.S.A., on a very hot afternoon in June in the mid 1950s. The producer and leading actor is Fred Graham (Petruchio) who is having considerable trouble with his tempestuous leading lady and ex-wife Miss Lilli Vanessi (Katherine) who threatens to walk out at the last minute. Things are further complicated backstage when Bill Calhoun (Lucentio) tells his girlfriend Lois Lane (Bianca) that he has run up a large gambling debit in “Baltimore’s most respectable floating crap game” and signed an IOU in Fred’s name.

Things really ‘hot up’ both on and off stage during the performance of “the Shrew” when two gangsters call to collect the outstanding debt on behalf of their boss…